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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas in America

I have been back in America for a year now, longer than I "lived" overseas. I once worked with a woman that said everyone should live in another country if they have the chance, because it will make them appreciate America that much more. That might be true of anyone leaving their home country. I don't know. It was certainly true for me. Seven short months living in a foreign land a year back home, and I still appreciate things like the first amendment more than ever. I hope I always keep the same appreciation I had while living in a place that did not have a free press (at least not a totally free one), or freedom from censorship.
And there are other, more selfish and every day things that I appreciate. I like going to the grocery store and finding a wide selection of inexpensive diet soda.
Yesterday I was walking through the grocery store, doing some pre Christmas shopping, and enjoying the wide selection of the foods that I grew up with and I made an unpleasnat discovery. I was looking through the frozen vegetable section for some chopped brocolli, and could not find any. I found a lot of frozen creamed spinach, and some frozen steam in bag whole leaf spinach, but no frozen chopped spinach. The discovery I made though, was that there are 7 cases of frozen vegetables in this particular semi upscale grocery store, and 20... TWENTY cases of ice cream products.
I love America, and I love freedom, and I love cheap diet sodas, but I think something has gone slightly wrong. Is ice cream really three times more important to us than frozen vegetables?